By John P. Martin, The Philadelphia Inquirer –
PHILADELPHIA — The Archdiocese of Philadelphia let a pastor who admitted abusing adolescent boys at a Northeast Philadelphia parish return to limited ministry in 1997 because doctors said his problem had been substance abuse, not pedophilia, jurors were told Tuesday.
After his return from treatment, the Rev. Stanley Gana was assigned as the chaplain for a monastery of Carmelite nuns,
Msgr. William J. Lynn, the administrator who recommended his assignment and had interviewed two of his victims, told Gana he could also occasionally assist at parishes — as long as he kept “a low-profile” in the diocese.
“I said it would be fine if Gana helps out, if it was not a Northeast parish or a parish with a school,” Lynn wrote in a confidential memo.
Philadelphia prosecutors introduced the records today as they sought to prove that Lynn, the archdiocese’s former secretary for clergy, endangered children by enabling or failing to remove priests suspected of abusing children.
Gana is not charged, but he’s one of nearly two dozen priests that prosecutors say jurors need to hear about because they illustrate how Lynn and other church officials handled decades of abuse complaints.
The documents presented in court today showed that Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua allowed Gana to resign as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows in Bridgeport in 1995 after two men had alleged he abused them a decade earlier at Our Lady of Calvary in Northeast Philadelphia. Gana’s resignation letter and Bevilacqua’s acceptance said he was stepping down for “health” reasons.
Gana had repeatedly denied the abuse allegations, but admitted them in 1996 to a nun who was counseling him at Southdown, an Ontario, Canada treatment center, the records show. She told Lynn about the confession.
Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington highlighted one memo that said the treatment center doctors concluded that Gana did not suffer from pedophilia or ephebophilia — sexual disorders involving children or teens — but acted out sexually because of deep substance abuse addiction.
“He’s admitted to having sex with 11- and 12-year-old boys, but he’s not a pedophile or an ephebophile?” Blessington asked Det. Joseph Walsh of the prosecutor’s office, one of the lead investigators in the case.
“That’s what the report says,” Walsh testified.
Because of that diagnosis, the archdiocese took him back. In September 1997, Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua wrote Gana a letter welcoming him.
But the records show that church leaders were concerned about where to put Gana, if his past accusers would resurface and if more accusers might come forward. In one memo to the cardinal, Lynn said Gana’s monastery assignment would “minimize the possibility of unwanted publicity.”
Gana was removed in 2002, after the clergy sex-abuse exploded and the archdiocese implemented a new policy barring any priest from active ministry following accusations of abuse. He was defrocked in 2006.
One of Lynn’s lawyers, Thomas Bergstrom, pointed out that the nuns running the monastery knew Gana’s past and that he was not allowed unsupervised time with children.
Bergstrom also highlighted documents showing that Bevilacqua and two of his top aides, Bishops Edward Cullen and Joseph Cistone, were actively involved in decisions regarding Gana. In one memo he cited, Cullen directed Lynn to revise his recommendations for when and how Gana could return to ministry.
